Are you thinking about how to zero a rifle scope at 100 yards to get started with hunting? You might want to zero your rifle at 100 yards once you have mounted a scope on your rifle so that you can go for hunting. Before zeroing your rifle, you need to make sure that everything is well-equipped and the screws of scope are properly tightened.

When you zero your rifle at 100 yards, you will be able to shoot at the target accurately without any issues. Everyone wants to achieve the best out of their rifles, and this is the reason why zeroing is essential. In this guide, we will be showing you how exactly you can zero your rifle at 100 yards to shoot the target precisely.

What Does Zeroing A Rifle Mean?

Zeroing a rifle scope simply refers to the process of sighting-in a rifle scope. It is a way how you adjust the sights properly so that you can shoot at the target at a certain distance precisely. Zeroing a rifle scope is necessary for every rifle owners because without getting their rifle scope zeroed, the bullets can’t travel in a straight path.

You can zero a rifle at several distances, which is usually calculated in terms of yards. If you are thinking about deer hunting, zeroing your rifle at 100 yards can be your top priority. With that being done, you’d be able to shoot at its bull’s eye with high accuracy.

Courtesy: The Prepper Journal

Why Is Zeroing A Rifle Important?

As mentioned above, zeroing a rifle is an essential task for every rifle owners who are thinking about shooting at the target accurately. Zeroing a rifle can be even more beneficial if you own a rifle with a scope. Here are some major reasons why zeroing a rifle is very important:

Zeroing a rifle can help in letting you know the spot where you will be shooting, hence preventing any injuries that you could face while shooting.

Zeroing a rifle helps you to shoot at the target accurately.

It also helps you control the rifle properly and utilize the best out of your rifle.

It makes it easier for you to find out the farthest shooting distance of your rifle where you can shoot accurately.

You will be able to identify the issues that can appear while applying different shooting methods.

It also builds up your confidence to make your shooting ability better.

How To Zero A Rifle Scope At 100 Yards

Zeroing a rifle scope is something that you shouldn’t miss while using your rifle for shooting at long range. Since you have got enough knowledge about the things staying behind the zeroing technique, you might be ready to get started with zeroing your rifle scope at 100 yards. Here are all the methods you need to follow to zero your rifle scope at 100 yards.

Getting Started

Setting Up

Once you have mounted a rifle scope on your rifle, you need to ensure that everything is adjusted properly. The first thing you need to look for is whether the scope is well-seated on your rifle or not. Now, you need to look for the scope rings to make sure they are properly placed at the scope mounting base. Also, you need to make sure that there is no sort of movements at the scope mounting base and the scope rings.

Check Reticle

When you have ensured these things, you need to take a look at the reticle and make sure that you can focus the reticle in a suitable way. What you need to do here is to ensure that the cross-hairs at the reticle is well-focused. In case the cross-hairs aren’t in focus, you should point your rifle scope towards the sky and place your eye to another direction focusing on a certain object for a while so that you will have complete attention towards it. Now, you need to look through your rifle scope by turning back and make sure that the view in the reticle isn’t blurry.

Eye Adjustment

The exact thing that happens here is that your eye takes a quick judgment of what you see through your rifle scope. While looking at the reticle, your eyes will start focusing and adjusting themselves. However, if you find a blurry image, you might have to look at the end of your shooting area of your rifle and adjust the scope diopter properly. You need to keep adjusting the diopter until the reticle stops showing a blurry image which means it is well-focused.

Boresighting

The next thing you need to be doing is to perform boresighting. To do so, you need to ensure that the rifle isn’t loaded. The barrel also has to be unobstructed. You should the rifle’s bolt and place the rifle in a secure way pointing towards the down range.

Now, you need to stay behind your rifle and keep looking through the bore for centering the target. You’ve to move your rifle properly while doing so. Then, you need to adjust your rifle scope so that you can center the reticle towards the same target without moving the rifle from its original location.

Turret Adjusting

At this period, the turret located at the upper part of the scope will adjust the elevation of the reticle and the one at the side will adjust the left and right part of the reticle. While doing so, the boresight shouldn’t be very accurate, your rifle should at least be able to shoot the target at a 100-yard distance.

For boresighting, using a laser boresight and placing it at the rifle’s chamber can also be an alternative method. While doing so, you just have to make sure that the reticle is centered towards your target properly. Using a laser boresight can make your entire work easier, but using the manual method as mentioned above will help you in improving your boresighting skills.

Zeroing The Scope At 100 Yards

Once you have boresighted your rifle, you can get started with the zeroing process of your rifle scope. Before zeroing your rifle scope, you need to ensure that you have an ammunition suitable with your rifle. If you are using a different and incompatible ammunition for your rifle, your every shot will be shooting in improper targets away from your exact target. You won’t be able to shoot where you want even by zeroing your rifle scope.

How to Get Started?

When you are thinking about zeroing your rifle scope at 100 yards, it might be thinking about using your rifle for hunting purposes. Zeroing your rifle can be difficult, but if you are sure about proper equipments with your rifle, you can easily perform the entire process. You might want to use an easier grid format to try out a zero target before getting onto the main point. Doing so can help you detect your current adjustments. You can later move on to the bulls-eye target. While zeroing your rifle scope, you have to utilize your rifle rest object such as sandbags so that you will have a proper area to shoot at the target precisely. Using your muscles to support your rifle while zeroing the scope might result in getting less accurate results.

Shooting Tryouts

When you are in a proper spot to zero your rifle scope, you might want to shoot the first group of around 3-4 shots with your rifle pointing towards the center of your target at 100 yards. While firing, you will be able to detect bullet holes in the target area with the help of your scope. But, this isn’t the end. You need to keep aiming your rifle towards the bulls-eye without changing the aimed spot. Maybe you wouldn’t hit the bulls-eye at your first shot, but when you keep trying, you will certainly be able to shoot at the exact same spot.

Adjusting Scope With Tryout Result

Now that you have thrown away some shots from your first group, you can look at the target spot and measure the center of your bullet holes to the bulls-eye target. When you have the measurement, you need to adjust your rifle scope properly. You might be using a rifle scope having the adjustment of 1/4 MOA since this is the same case for most scopes available out there. While zeroing your rifle at 100 yards, 1 click will turn over the impact zone of your bullet by 0.25 inches. At this distance, there needs to be 2 clicks left and 4 clicks down with your rifle scope.

Adjusting Bullet Impact With Turret

The bullet’s impact can be elevated with the help of turret above your rifle scope, whereas to move it left and right, the turret on the scope’s side will be helpful. If you want to know proper direction where you need to turn over your rifle scope, you can just look at the scope to find a printed text at the turret with proper information. During our research with a certain rifle scope, we had to turn the turret clockwise to move the bullet’s impact towards the upper or lower region. What you need to do with your turret really depends on the type and brand of scope you are using. You don’t need to worry about it since you will be able to find enough information at the printed region on your turret.

How About An Example

Let’s look at an example! Suppose the bullet impact hit 1″ towards the right and 0.5″ towards the lower region. This means you need to turn the top turret 4 clicks clockwise and the side turret 16 clicks anti-clockwise so that you will be able to move the bullet’s impact towards the bulls-eye target (up and left).

The Final Step of Zeroing

When you are zeroing your rifle scope at 100 yards, the movement of your bullet’s impact towards the left and right should be totally accurate. It isn’t mandatory for the case of elevation of your bullet’s impact at this range. When you zero your rifle scope at 100 yards and shoot at a shorter distance while hunting, it might be easier for you to adjust the scope properly to make the bullet hit the exact target spot.

When you have adjusted the turrets properly, you can shoot a few shots at the end to make sure every adjustment are done perfectly. If the bullets hit at the bulls-eye target, you have successfully zeroed your rifle scope at 100 yards. If the bullet holes aren’t in your target spot yet, you might want to perform some essential adjustments with proper measurement and try firing a few shots again at the target. You can continue doing so until your bullet holes appear the exact same spot where you have aimed at.

When you are ready to go for hunting the next time, your rifle scope is likely to be zeroed already unless you had dropped or damaged it the last time. However, looking at your rifle scope every time you go for hunting can help you ensure whether the rifle scope is properly zeroed or not. You also need to make sure all the screws are properly tightened before going for hunting the next time. You might also want to try out throwing a few shots to be sure about it.

Tips For The Perfect Zeroing

When you are thinking about zeroing your rifle scope, there are several things you need to know about. Many rifle owners make usual mistakes most of the time while zeroing their rifles. Some rifle owners also wonder about the differences between zeroing and sighting-in of their rifle scope. In fact, both of them are synonyms of each other and have the exact same methods. Here are some tips that can help you to zero your rifle perfectly.

The first thing you need to do to zero your rifle perfectly is to get a suitable scope for your rifle.

You also need to get the perfect scope rings and mounting base to mount a scope on your rifle before zeroing the scope.

Before zeroing your rifle scope, you need to make sure everything is adjusted and mounted properly with tightened screws.

The most important thing you need for shooting with your rifle is the bullet. You need to spend your time looking for the perfect bullets for your rifle to zero the scope for hitting the targets with high accuracy.

Boresighting your rifle in a proper way by adjusting the turrets with your rifle unloaded and barrel cleaned will help you in zeroing your rifle perfectly.

You shall try zeroing at long ranges first and later try at short ranges. When you are doing this, it can be a difficult task for you at the beginning while zeroing at long ranges. But, when you keep gaining experience and start shooting at the bulls-eye target accurately at long ranges, there’d be no chances of shooting inaccurately at shorter ranges. Trying out by zeroing at 200, 150 or 100 yards can be a good choice at the beginning.

This last tip may not be for perfect zeroing, but it is really important for you to do every time you are going for hunting. When you have zeroed your rifle scope once, it will stay zeroed for a long period of time, provided that the scope and its components aren’t damaged. However, checking whether your scope is zeroed or not prior to going for hunting can be your top priority.

Conclusion

Now that you have learned about the method of how to zero a rifle scope at 100 yards, you might want to try it out in action in real life. Once you are able to do so after trying out several times, you might want to try out zeroing at other ranges as well. The only thing you need to ensure while zeroing is that everything is properly adjusted and the reticle is in focus.

We believe you’d be able to zero your rifle perfectly with the help of our guide. If you still have any issues, you might want to write down to us in the comments so that we’d be able to help you out right away.

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Hello! We are Zulfiqur & Nawrin, and we’ve been constantly traveling around Europe for the past 3 years. Adventure travel & getting to know historical places are our passions. Keeping that in mind, we started writing about equipment, techniques, and tips that can help you out camping, hiking, shooting activities and in difficult survival situations. As we continue blogging here, we might as well be traveling to another place now. We just can’t bear the thought of not seeing a new place, not meeting new people and not knowing a part of the history. Do not hesitate to contact us at any point of time: rogerthat@itishooting.com